Nathaniel Hawthorne's Roger Malvin's Burial
The American Gunfighter and Heroic Identity
Nov 4, 2009 Christopher Mansour
Territorial expansion and the American Indian wars contribute to the emergence of a violent Colonial American society with historical parallels to early heroic cultures. Through the jockeying for power and domination between native and colonist alike, emerge ideals and expectations of masculine conduct. While clear gender binaries emerge, they run parallel to notions of duty, loyalty, courage, faith, and morality. The textual emphasis focuses on the degrees of acceptable or unacceptable behaviour that contributes to the story's notion of "true" manhood.
The Gunfighter and Masculine Identity
In "Roger Malvin's Burial", violence is the means by which the gunfighter, like his Aboriginal enemy, establishes fame and status. Out of this heroic culture emerges the manifest destiny concept on an interpersonal level. Heroic culture encodes masculine principles and codes of acceptable conduct. The resulting thematic binaries shape the text. For example, bravery versus cowardice. To be brave is to be accepted; to act cowardly is to become a pariah. Reuben cannot accept Roger's wish to die alone. Should he abandon the old man, Reuben may be labelled a coward and a traitor.
Since the penultimate act of compassion is to never abandon a dying person, Reuben refuses to leave his surrogate father and war comrade. To do so would be unchristian; it would also violate the heroic code. Roger entreats him to "let the wish of a dying man have weight"(Hawthorne 19), to allow him "father[ly] authority". Acknowledging their "father"-son relationship, Reuben fears leaving Malvin to "lie unburied in the wilderness"(19). There is a Christian and heroic duty here. One cannot let a man die alone and leave him unburied. To do so would disrespect another warrior, and be a grievous sin.
Reuben receives his surrogate's "parting words", vowing to "dig a grave" for the two of them. If Reuben survives, he shall "seek [his] way home"(Hawthorne 19). Fearful for Malvin, he curses the "slow approach of death in [this] solitude"(20) and attests to his culture's outlook on gender roles. A "brave man does not shrink in...battle"; proper men are stoic, loyal, and fearless, even in death. Women are viewed differently. To Reuben, with "friends...round the bed", even "women may die composedly"(Hawthorne 20). Women receive a decidedly unfavourable value judgment.
Stoicism and Masculinity
A dying man, like Malvin, must face death fearlessly. While Reuben could understand if Malvin dreads his impending death, the old man issues a scornful retort. He "shall not shrink even here,...[being]...of no weak heart"(20) and would "settle [his] account" with God alone. Heroic in the face of death, Roger Malvin epitomizes the so-called all-American hero. It is an attitude prevalent even in The Iliad or Beowulf.
The Unpardonable Sin of Cowardice
In contrast, cowardice is the unforgiveable sin in heroic cultures. A hero's duty is to his people and comrades; albeit after one's honour is satisfied. In the Colonies, a man guilty of cowardice is a marked man. Reuben condemns the "one coward" who fled the Pequawket battle "unwounded, in the beginning of the fight"(Hawthorne 21). Such a man becomes a traitor and an outcast. In any violent society, a coward is an 'unmanly' person who has failed to meet social expectations, namely to be proactive, fearless, and loyal. To the colonists, any "true man on the frontier would shoulder his musket" (21) and rescue the battle's survivors.
Textual and Thematic Binaries
The agony of Reuben's dilemma becomes apparent in Malvin's final moments. It introduces the binaries of heroism versus villainy, loyalty versus disloyalty, and saints versus sinners. Each binary creates the thematic structure by which Reuben's conduct can be juxtaposed with social conventions. Reuben dreads the moment Dorcas Malvin will question him. He fears to "meet her eye"; fears for his name and reputation lest he be accused of letting Malvin "perish in the wilderness"(20) while he escaped alive. Only a villain, he believes, abandons someone he has vowed "to defend with [his] own life"(20). Yet, Reuben is cowardly; his desire to die with Malvin is a way of avoiding a grieving Dorcas.
But it is only when Malvin bribes Reuben with the promise of Dorcas' love, that the boy reveals a selfishness in his character, a sinful motivation underneath a son's love for a father. Roger Malvin wants to save Reuben from death, intending that Dorcas and Reuben be married. The saintly Roger contrasts with the now self-interested Reuben. He then instructs the boy to explain to Dorcas the severity of his injuries and wish for Reuben to escape further harm. The bloodstained handkerchief symbolizes Reuben's heroic oath and Christian vow. He swears "by the blood" that he will save Roger's life, and failing that, "lay his body in the grave"(Hawthorne 22). It is a promise Roger holds him to.
To a heroic society, Reuben's oath is his bond. But to Christians, Reuben has promised before God that he will respectfully attend to the dead by fulfilling vows, offering prayers, and properly disposing of the remains through burial or cremation. To disrespect the dead is an affront in most societies; to break a Christian vow invites divine judgment. Reuben's breaking of the vow illustrates the magnitude of his transgression.
Lying as Spiritual Death
Reuben's lies and omissions constitute the sin that taints his soul. Guilt-ridden, he cannot face Dorcas and responds to her as if "against an imaginary accusation"(Hawthorne 24). He misleads her into thinking Malvin died in his presence on the fourth day. When Dorcas asks if he buried her father, he claims to have "[done] what [he] could", leaving "a noble tombstone above [Malvin's] head"(24). He cannot admit that his "selfish love of life" and Dorcas' affection prompt him to lie, mislead, and sin. After Dorcas praises Reuben's "courage and fidelity", he suffers "the miserable and humiliating torture of unmerited praise"(Hawthorne 25).
In every respect, heroic and Christian, Reuben destroys his social identity. He becomes the very thing his people despise, a liar and a traitor.
References
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Roger Malvin's Burial." U Virginia Library. 10 Oct. 2009.
Richard Pearis
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